Interesting article on the forbes.com website today about how guild leadership experience translates well to the business world; claims that Starbucks’ CIO succeeded in his career to his WoW experience. (Thanks, Keredria!) It probably shouldn’t surprise me when I see things like this, but WoW seems to be getting more mainstream each day.

Anecdote: Myself and several other young officers were invited to a lunch with an Army four-star general the other day. (No names, but this general is responsible for hundreds of thousands of people and billions of dollars of assets.) During the Q&A period, he was asked about ways to find training time for soldiers. His response? “In the future, unconventional methods will be a large part of our military’s training. Look at World of Warcraft…an online game where many players have to come together as a group to accomplish a common goal, underneath a leader who has to keep that group happy. Group leaders in the game exhibit many of the same skills that our junior officers do today.” He then asked who there played WoW; I raised my hand, as did one other officer next to me. He turned to me and asked if what he had said was accurate. I agreed, and he then replied, “I’m glad you’re learning something. Now stop playing and start doing your homework. :)”